Archive for September, 2010

I am a fantasy geek. There I’ve said it. However fantasty football has never been something that could attract my interest too much. I play American fantasy sports where the draft system is in place instead of a salary cap. Much more fun but anyway I have put together my fantasy football team for the 2010-11 season and I have decided on a new strategy this year:

Buy Big Names.

Therefore I have Torres, Drogba and Lampard all in my squad.

My Team is as follows (3-4-3)

GK: Robinson – Blackburn

DF: Upson – West Ham

DF: Campbell – Newcastle

DF: Dann – Birmingham

MF: Gutierrez – Newcastle

MF: Walcott – Arsenal

MF: Essien – Chelsea

MF: Lampard – Chelsea

AT: Jones – Stoke

AT: Drogba – Chelsea

AT: Torres – Liverpool

My bench is:

GK: Jaaskelainen – Bolton

DF: Wilkinson – Stoke

DF: Elekobi – Wolves

MF: Rodwell – Everton

So as you can see – I didn’t have a lot left over for subs. I really ignored the defence and hoped the midfield and attack and grab assists and get goals. I think Kenwyn Jones will be a star at Stoke I really do so I’m delighted with him. I am considering bringing in Rory Delap into the midfield (to replace Jonas Gutierrez) and of course I may change my mind as the hours go on but as it stands that is my team and I am proud of it.

If you are in a league on premierleague.com and would like me to join then please get in touch with the League ID.

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Cuts are never fun. Budget cuts even less so. As a raging liberal who believes in high taxes and excellent public services you may think that I am against the budget cuts. However this is not the case. My ideology is what it is – an ideology. At this current juncture I prefer to step into the real world as things are not all sweetness and light out there. Last night I had a long debate with a socialist who preferred not to be a realist and believes that we can recoup all the money just by enforcing tax a bit stronger. Yeah… Also he believes that the money is there and the need for cuts is one big lie because that is what the Tory party ideology wants to do – shrink the public sector. Now they might do but when you look at things in the real world – a party (or in this case a coalition government) doing these swinging budget cuts when the party has no overall majority and aren’t exactly;y well liked anyway just because they might ideologically want to do so is just flat out insane.

If they could shrink the public sector slowly but surely to reach their ideological goals then they would. People don’t notice things when they are slowly taken away from then. It is like an addiction. If you smoked 20 a day and then suddenly stopped then you’d know all about it. However if you smoked 20 a day and went down to 19 one week, 18 the next and so on, you wouldn’t notice the loss of the nicotine so much. It is the same with Public Services. If a council run day care centre closes one month and an outreach programme for young kids closes three months later than you won’t notice it as much unless you are directly effected. If both of these happen at the same time along with Car Park charges going up and a local school being closed then people notice and people begin to moan loudly.

I likened the country’s debt situation to that of an individual. If you owe say £5,000 and you can’t pay it back the way you are spending money then you make changes. You stop going out as much, stop buying new clothes, you budget harder. You don’t spend more money to get out of that debt because at some point the people you owe money to will want the money back. I was informed that my argument was moronic and you can’t liken a country’s debt to an individuals and I ask ‘why not?’. A debt is a debt is a debt. You owe money to people who at some point will want their money back. After the events of Greece in late April/early May of 2010 a lot of these money people are kind’ve twitchy to say the least.

The United Kingdom has the largest deficit in the EU and would be the next country to hit the rocks. Greece was bailed out because if Greece went the whole of the EuroZone was in serious trouble. Spain and Portugal both had their credit rating taken down a notch before the rot was stopped. We however are not in the EuroZone even though we are in the EU. So countries such as Germany who put together the bail-out package would be less inclined to do so for us as the rot wouldn’t spread as fast as we are using two different currencies. Also at some point you have to stop the bleeding and unless we shape up we are going to be the country that people let sink.

So the only real thing is to is swift and harsh cuts in public spending to right our debt, yes? Well that is where people start thinking about themselves. Jobs will be lost and it will not be pretty. As a country we’ve been spending more money that we’ve got coming in. As anyone who is either unemployed, or is a student or works from home as has the TV on in the background whenever you hear ‘but we’ve got more going out than we’ve got coming in’ you know it’s a bad sign. They usually call Ocean Finance and all is well with the world and they buy a new car but I don’t think we can consolidate all our loans into one easy payment. No-one is lending us that type of money in one hit.

So we need to pay off the loans but people don’t want any budget cuts. Sadly I can see no way in which both of these goals can be achieved successfully. Plenty more qualified people than me have looked at the finances and come up with the same solution. Some believe that we can do both – well you know what – we flat out can’t. So now you have to look at scales of budget cuts. Just how quickly do we want to get our house in shape? Do we want to have a rough few years and then come out of it stronger or do we want a bad couple of decades but without the harshness of the next few years. That is the question everyone has to ask themselves. I for one would like the country to get out of debt ASAP as the marketplace is still a very volatile one. If any other country hits the skids then we are in trouble unless the money lenders can see we are getting our house in order.

I’m lucky enough to know someone very high up at one of the banks who took me through exactly what happened and why we are in the mess we are in. He accepted that the banks were certainly not blameless but in the end it all came down to simple cashflow and panic. The banks and even Lehman Brothers who were let go by the US (which was in his words ‘the biggest mistake ever made’) had enough money. However the money was all tied up in long-term investments and one bank wanted their money back from them now. Lehman Brothers could provide that money but whilst they were getting it together – another bank heard that the other bank were demanding all their money back now so they also asked for all their money back. A domino effect in a game of chinese whispers erupted and suddenly everyone Lehman Brothers owed money to wanted the money back – and now – and they couldn’t get the capital together. They were broke and they weren’t bailed out and subsequently went under.

All the other banks looked at each other and said ‘if Lehman Brothers can go under – we can all go under’ and then suddenly the banks had a very fast game of raising capital and kicking to the curb long-term projects. They all needed money in their accounts there and then otherwise they may go under as well. That is why they stopped lending money except to those who they were very confident they would get the money back from. Banks weren’t going to gamble anymore under this environment.

So on to Greece. Exactly the same thing happened. Lots of banks lend money to countries all the time. They see countries as about as good an investment as you can get. So when suddenly Greece looked like it may default on its loans all the banks wanted all their money back that day. Greece didn’t have the money and therefore they were going bankrupt until they were bailed out by Germany & friends. Those who believe that it can’t happen here are quite frankly deluded as all it takes is a game of chinese whispers and panic and suddenly we are staring down the barrel.

Moving on – people are saying that these cuts will hurt the working class and they are right. I’m from working class stock (albeit I now live in a middle class apartment and have a middle class income) but my background is working class. I can see why they are up in arms and scared about the cuts. Jobs going, services going, things just getting worse and worse and worse. However if we don’t cut the deficit and quickly then one of these banks we owe money to will want it back and want it back now. We’ll be able to pay them but if other banks start demanding their money back then we are screwed and would need a bail-out or we’d go under.

Now a bankrupt Britain would hurt the working classes far more than the middle or upper classes. Why you ask. Well because the middle and upper classes will still have cash. The working classes generally do not have cash and have mortgages and need help from the banks to cover bills and such. Small businesses also often need loans from banks to invest in their futures. In a bankrupt Britain the banks will not be lending any money. In fact they very well might demand all their money back straight away and most people with mortgages for instance will not have that money. They will default on their mortgage and be declared bankrupt. The banks would take over these properties and sell them to cash buyers or those with a big deposit and therefore a small mortgage and risk for them. So middle and upper classes buy more and more properties as they can afford to and then rent them out to the working classes. The rich get richer and the poor can’t make a step on to the property ladder.

Yes the savage cuts the government are lining up are not good but they are a necessary evil. Without them the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It is time for us to get our finances in shape and bite the bullet for a few years. If we don’t then this country will go to the dogs sooner rather than later. I prefer short term hit and long term stability to short-term head in the sandism and long-term worry.

This isn’t about ideology and shouldn’t be a debate along party lines. This is about getting out of this financial mess we are in and the best way to do that. I think the country turning things around and cutting the debt is by far the most important thing – and so does the city. I know people don’t care what the city thinks but if the city doesn’t like what the government are doing then we are done folks – we are done and bankruptcy will happen and I’ll tell you this for nought. If you think the proposed cuts are bad now – imagine what they’ll be in a bankrupt Britain.

The future is not long-term it is short-term. Let’s not run before we can walk. Get our finances sorted today and we’ll live to potentially see a brighter tomorrow. If we don’t then the future may be very bleak for the majority of us.

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Today is Wednesday. Wednesday brings many challenges but it also brings me to one of my favourite events of the week – my Hospital Radio show. I say ‘my’ but in fact there are several presenters but I’ll be in the big seat pushing all the buttons and the knobs. Some people, I will say mostly young people as it’s true, think that Hospital Radio is pointless. When they go into hospital they watch TV or listen to their iPod or play on their iPhones or whatever. However for the older generation they sometimes can’t afford the outrageous prices for the TV and half the time they don’t even know of Hospital Radio.

What we do is go around the wards before the show and collect requests from patients. Obviously many won’t listen and don’t care but often you’ll find people who will listen and enjoy the show. I might often find that we are the only people they’ll see in a day (non-staff wise) as they might have no family, or no family who live near at the very least.

Last week towards the end of the show we got a phone call down from a patient (they can ring a free number to contact the studio) thanking us and saying that he had just had his blood pressure taken and it was significantly down on earlier in the day and he attributed this to listening to us for the past couple of hours. It is at times like these that you know you are making a difference, it might not be a huge difference but to some people we are making their stay in hospital better than it would’ve been without us.

This is why I think we do a darn important job. I have made friends and become more confident in myself as a by-product of this volunteering but it isn’t about me. Tonight no doubt I’ll speak to someone who hasn’t had a conversation worthy of the name all day. Hopefully they’ll have a request and listen in and enjoy the banter.

My shows are never here’s a request, that was a request, here’s another request. I try to make it entertaining. I run quizzes between the other hosts and randomly talk about stuff that is going on. A fortnight ago I commentated live on the Men’s 100m Final at the European Athletics Championships just because it was there. Last week we had an excellent quiz on Eurovision – the question was ‘There have been 13 countries who have won Eurovision more than once – name them’ – Lyn & Bobby beat out Brenda & Will 8-5. Tonight I already have a quiz safely tucked away in my wallet and hopefully everyone will enjoy it. The best one I ever did was after I contacted Walkers Crisps and got them to send me a list of their Top Ten Most Sold Flavours. That was a good ‘un…

So Hospital Radio is still relevant in the 21st Century is what I’m trying to say. Whether you want Matt Monro, Pavarotti or Susan Boyle. We have over 22,000 songs and we do our best to play your exact request. Sometimes we can’t as we don’t have it but we’ll play a song by the same artist if possible or the same song by a different artist or if neither are possible, one in the same genre. It might not be walking up a mountain raising money but it is doing something, albeit small, that is making a difference to people’s stays in Hospital and for that, despite what a lot of people say, I am proud to call myself a Hospital Radio DJ.

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I just had to post about the absolutely shocking service my sister & I received at the Halfway House along the seafront between Thorpe Bay and Southend the other day. It was a carvery and I’ve never had a carvery so it was a tad exciting as I had no idea what to expect. Anyway we ordered at the bar and then walked round to where the carvery was. There was an extremely long queue, this was not a good start. My sister went back to our table and moved our drinks nearer to the carvery as there was plenty of space.

Anyway as we waited the Turkey got taken off as it had gotten too cold so they had to wait to get another one ready. Not good. We must have been queuing for twenty minutes before we got to the head of the queue. Not amused. We only got through that quick because some people in front of us only wanted Turkey and not the other alternatives (Gammon or Beef). So we got our meat but by then there were no Roast Potatoes left. Seriously not impressive.

We go and sit down and then some roasts come out so we go back and get some. Fair enough. Some of the food was stone cold but to be fair the meat was superb, I’ll give them credit for that. Anyway when we moved we had apparently moved from the bar to the restrurant area. The waitress tried to charge us again for the same meal we had already paid for at the bar! The fact that we had to have a payment receipt to get food had clearly bypassed her intelligence levels…

She was about to go through with making a real shit about it before my sister brought up my disability. Wow. Never seen that line used in a long time. As the waitress turned to look at me my hand was clearly withered so she apparently just gave us a dirty look and a lecture about how the bar and restaurant areas were separate for a reason. I wasn’t even looking at her as by then I just wanted to eat and get out of there but my sister took me of the filthy look she gave me and my hand.

So we eat and leave pretty quickly and d’ya know what? The people who were waiting for the Turkey were still in line waiting for it. They were ahead of us in the queue and we’d waited 20 minutes and it took 20 odd minutes for my sister to finish eating (I’d whoffed it down as I hadn’t eaten anything substantial on Saturday) and yet they were still waiting. Absolutely awful. Just disgusting. This is why I always prefer take-away as you can eat in comfort at home. Eating out when you’ve had poor service only leads to me wanting to eat and get the hell out of there.

So Halfway House along the Seafront between Thorpe Bay and Southend gets no stars on the star scale. The only good part was the meat was nice – everything else was cold and the service was pathetic. Avoid at all costs and try the Harvester in Shoebury.

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Sometimes in life you just notice things more when you take a step back and stop thinking. Today whilst getting my lunch I sat back on the stool where I was sitting and looked out of the window for five minutes and watched and listened to the world go by. First thing I noticed was a car with a driver and two passengers (all teenage girls) just park horrendously. There was easily enough room for two cars in the space but they parked right in the middle so no-one else could park there. Very inconsiderate.

Next someone walking into the chippy clearly knew the new person behind the till. (For the record – new person is awful – slow and just bad at her job). Anyway she charged her friend less money than it actually should’ve been. (55p for a sausage instead of 80p). I know it’s only 25p but I thought that was rude considering there were several of us in there that clearly saw it. Also she served her friend before me even though I’d been waiting several minutes whilst she remembered to put the Curry Sauce in the microwave. Shocking I say. Shocking!

Earlier in the day I had been to the barbers to get my hair cut. Same woman who did it last time. The best way I think I can describe her is a typical 40 odd year-old Essex girl. You can tell she’s been through the mill, that haggard look on her face and her soul having been dragged the muck of life. Still a MILF though. Luckily for me she worked out relatively quickly that I’m not a talkative sort and she just got on with cutting my hair. That bit though at the end where they show you the back of your head – I doubt I would ever say ‘Nah – I don’t like it’ – I have never even heard a person complain about that bit but she said it does happen. I said she could cut crop circles in the back and I doubt I’d say anything.

The guy next to me was being given the most traditional questioning ever by a hairdresser ‘So been anywhere nice on holiday this year?’ – I inwardly chuckled to myself. I had already sucked conversation out of my hairdresser and was sitting there mentally dancing to Zombie Nation. If a hairdresser is going to drag me into conversation then it better be about something interesting. No I haven’t been on holiday and no I’m not planning to do so. What is your second question now the holiday issue is sorted hairdresser?

As I suspected…silence.

Lastly I just took a package in for #4. I have no idea who lives at #4 (well I do as I just saw the name on the package) but it is weird that I’ve taken a clearly important package in for someone even though I have no idea who they are. Being apartments I’ll go and leave it outside his door and it’ll be fine but still strange. The delivery girl wasn’t half bad either however she had a young sprog with her.

As someone said to me the other day ‘plenty more fish in the sea’ and as I replied ‘I don’t have a lot of bait and I mostly throw back what I’ve caught anyway’

Smile.

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People come and go in life. That is just the way it is. I’m one of those people who is very laid back on this issue. Having moved around the country many times I know that distance even in this modern-day world of the interwebs will weaken friendships. My best friend from school got married during the summer and I wasn’t even invited so I know that even the best of friendships can weaken over time. Being a loner though has helped me cope with this and being a big user of the interwebs also I have seen people come and go in my life. Circumstances change, relationships change, jobs change, people change.

Anyway on to the point of this blog.

A friend of mine was telling me the other night about how she simply can’t deal with being single. She would prefer to be in a crap relationship than be alone. She puts this down to self-confidence issues. Now I sit firmly on the other side of the ledger. Before recent events I hadn’t had genuine interest in anyone for about three years and before that it had been 18 months or so. I like being single and will only change when someone wanders into my life whom I think is special and would enrich my life accordingly, whether this be because I find them physically attractive, down right loveable, whether there is insane chemistry or whether they stimulate me mentally, all have occurred and drawn me to someone in the past.

So for me I don’t need anyone to complete me, I don’t need anyone to need me, if I did then I’d be a wreck considering the state of my personal life. Having been single for over 27 years I think it’s fair to say that I’m comfortable with my lot in life. I am who I am and whilst it did take me a long time to accept that – I did quite a few years back. People try to give to advice all the time about what I should do. ‘I need to just go out and get laid’ say some. Others say I’m too picky (I am picky but I think that is my choice), some say I don’t ‘put myself out there enough’ and that is fair, but maybe I don’t want to. Society seems to drum it into us that we need a partner to be anyone. Being single is looked down upon in some circles.

I was laying in bed last night plotting this blog entry and worked out that I haven’t actually asked anyone out for three years. Boy that is a long time when you think about it. I also worked out that I have asked out a grand total of four people in my life, I think. One of which seriously does not like me anymore due to things that happened at VI Form (of which I was an innocent party but easily blamed), one I’m FB friends with but haven’t seen nor spoken to in about four years, one I’m FB friends with but haven’t seen nor spoken to since I left my last job where we worked together and the other I’m FB friends with and still talk to every so often. This girl was the only one I didn’t know before asking out and she’s the one I still speak to. Bizarre. For the record they all said no. No-one I have ever asked out for a drink or anything has ever said yes. Harsh, harsh…

Still that shows what I am like. I don’t just go with the flow. I see many attractive people around the place but rarely do they have anything that actually interests me enough to go anything about it. When I do I get caught up in it too much but I’m learning to curb that side of me. If things don’t go down the way I’d hoped/expected then I’ll just lick my wounds and life will continue. My own mother believes that I won’t get into a relationship until ‘well into my 30s’ – so I have a while to go then before I can say I’m in any sort of relationship. I look across at my school friends and they are near enough all married or at least engaged. It still shocks me in a way but in others it does not. I remember there was one member of the social group I was in who fancied every single guy in the social group at one point or another except me. Says a lot really.

This isn’t a moping entry about ‘woe is me’ but it is more to show that I’m not an easy person. I’m not an easy person to break the walls down of. I’m not an easy person to like and I’m certainly not an easy person to love. I’m not someone who’ll put everything on the line for something that might never be. I am just me. Some people regard me as shy and quiet, those people are just people who I don’t click with. If I like you and/or respect you then you’ll know. If I don’t then I’ll come across as aloof because I just couldn’t care less what you think.

Some may perceive this as snobbishness but I just see it as the way I am. I see people often very differently to how others see them. I can be civil and nice to near enough anyone but to engage with someone takes a lot more. People whose lives revolve around ‘partying’ and ‘drinking’ and ‘pulling birds’ – yeah. I just can’t find a connection with them. Someone who wants to talk about their plans for world domination or discuss the probabilities of aliens having visited Earth or how great a President Bill Clinton was, now that is interesting. I need intellectual stimulation in friends and potential partners. People who want to better themselves and aren’t just happy to be bottom of the rung dwellers whose sole purpose in life is to have sex, get drunk and just have a good time.

So that is that. This ramble is to show those who don’t really know me, why I am who I am. I’m a difficult person to like or understand if I don’t like you but if I do then you’ll get me pretty quickly. I don’t need anyone to complete me and I like my little life. Being a loner has got a bad reputation. I have been called many things under the sun by people who don’t really know me, some deserved but mostly not. However I have learnt to deal with these comments and let them roll over me seamlessly (unless anyone says I’m a rapist or say I look like a pedophile – then I get mad).

Like it or lump it. I am who I am and I won’t fundamentally change for anyone. If that means I spend the rest of my life alone then so be it. I’ll live.

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Well being one of those people who actually doesn’t have any sort of social life, I am an avid X Factor watcher. What else is there to do on Saturday evening’s in autumn and winter? (Don’t answer that…)

Anyway last night we saw the two ends of the spectrum. We’ll start off with the bad. These are the type of people that make me feel sick. Two girls named Abby and Lisa who are deluded, nasty, bitchy, pathetic and depressingly the norm in the UK these days.

Just how awful is that?

However there are good times as well. In the middle of the show we were introduced to Cher Lloyd. Cher is a 16 year-old Performing Arts student who came on in very ripped trousers and seemed a tad nervous. She chose to sing a song I had never heard of, but a remix, by an artist I’d never even heard of before. The last time someone did this it was Diana Vickers audition and I loved that audition.

Anyway I digress.

Here is Cher…

The best audition on any of these shows that I have ever seen. This girl may very well be an absolute star someday. There is a gap in the market for an artiste like her and if she can keep it together she might well be made.

It is no shock that it was the most watched YouTube video in the UK today either…

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I have no idea how this blog will end up in time but I have a feeling it’ll be heavily politically themed. So I’m now going to take a few moments to jot down what I believe in. We’ll start with Education.

Firstly I believe squarely that we are all born equal. Whether we are the son of a Lord or the daughter of a coal miner. Every person deserves the same opportunities to become whatever they want to be. Yes when you are the son of a lord, the money may open up avenues that aren’t open to a daughter of a coal miner but who am I to not allow the Lord to use his money to help his offspring? So the best way around this is to create a state education system where everyone has the opportunity to learn and develop their skills as much as possible. So I think heavy investment is needed in young people and the education system.

I do however also think that a lot of people go to university on waste of paper degrees, when that money should be spent elsewhere. Ideologically I think that certain professions like medicine for instance should be funded solely by the state. Where the line is I’m not sure but there are certain degrees out there that as a country we will always need. I do believe that too many people go to university but it is everyone’s right to go but at what point do we fund everyone? I’d prefer to fund people studying for jobs that we need in the future than fund someone through a Media Studies degree that they are only taking to have three years of the university life.

I should point out that I’m a Journalism Grad who only graduated with a 2:2 at this point – although I’ll defend that by saying all my practical work was 2:1 or above. Damn essays and that bleedin’ dissertation…

More young people would do better to get more vocational qualifications so I think more alternatives need to be presented to young people. When I applied for Journalism there were apparently 200 applicants for every place. I find that stat quite insane and I’m sure it is not that high but that is what the tutors said at my interview for the university where I eventually studied. Back then there were only 18 fully accredited Journalism courses in the country, I’m pretty sure there are more now. So that meant if those figures are accurate that 99.5% of people who applied did not get in. What did they do next?

There are options to become trainees or apprentices on local newspapers, at local radio stations and with the explosion of the interwebs there are also many websites that want content. However with so many people wanting to do that, they often don’t even earn a fair wage. I used to work for a company whereupon some of the wages they gave their writers was quite frankly shocking, but as the boss said ‘I’m not paying them as if this was a part-time job’, when in fact that is exactly what he was doing. It was no surprise that our pool of copy writers dwindled from over 200 to less than 25, but still.

I digress.

My opinion on Education is that people need viable options. Not everyone is suited for university and moving on to a profession that is helped by a three or four-year degree. Everyone deserves the right to go but if you give people other options then they will look at them. University shouldn’t be about the whole experience, although that is part of it, it is about setting people up for the next stage of their careers and giving them prospects. We should invest in this but the B/S degrees are not needed and people taking them are in fact wasting their own time and years of their lives.

Everyone deserves the chance to be whatever they want to be but in the real world sadly we can’t always have what we want. I’m now not in the Journalism industry and in a way that makes me sad. However there are people better than me and I have had to accept that. I have however carved out a good career (so far) in another industry and I am content. I’m happy I went to university and studied Journalism as it did help in a way but when I look at my course of 40 people and as far as I know only three are still in the industry, I think it says a lot.

Whatever your background you should be able to try to become what you want to become. The state should help you fund this. I do not want to see working class kids not going to study Medicine for instance because they can’t afford to even though they have the grades and desire. This is not right. The state is there to help elevate equality but to do that money must be taken from elsewhere.

I would cut the number of university places and reduce the amount of courses that are offered. Then I would fund everyone who went to university and they are an investment in the future. Everyone else would be helped by a lot more funding in vocational courses that offer real skills to young people who may not be right for university. What we need to get over is that university is for everyone – it quite plainly isn’t.

We have to invest a lot of money in young people but not all of it should be in university based further education.

I have no idea if that made any sense whatsoever but heck that’s why it the title it says the word ‘rambles’…

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This blog will feature all manner of my rambles and opinions on anything that tickles my fancy. However it will not delve too deeply into my private life as that is personal to me. The blog will see posts ranging from politics to sport to short stories. Who knows. We’ll see where my mind takes us over the coming weeks and months.

To get in touch please leave me a comment or e-mail me via my e-mail address which is sat on the right hand column.

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